(21 Jun 2023, 3:43 pm)Washingtonian wrote This is an interesting point. How come the demand for the likes of the Metro and light rail network is always so high and yet the bus industry is falling further behind? The Metros in the morning are often rammed, particularly towards Newcastle. In a lot of ways I fear for the bus industry if the metro was ever to expand into the likes of Washington etc.

See personally I think they do have a future but they need to compliment trains and the Metro rather than outright compete against them. Like just to pick Hexham for an example, if the likes of 687, ran from Newborough to the train station and it's timetabled to connect with a train it would work. Similar in the opposite direction where you can get off certain trains and the bus will be sitting there waiting and takes you the last mile.

Instead we have a bus to the bus station, miles away from the train station 7 minutes after the 685 departs. Want to go to Newcastle ? Good luck.

The 4 is an example of a good connecting bus and it's actually quite busy aswell really. There's always quite good enough loads at the Regent Centre aswell whenever I've passed through, imagine if you could actually buy a bus and metro ticket from Ashington... It would be a good start, if these new tickets ever happen.